"Alpha House" (Amazon). Yonder comes the first fruit of Amazon Studios' semi-innovative pilot derby, upon which I reported and opined at length last spring — see here, here and here — marking its arrival as a producer of original streaming content alongside Netflix and Hulu. Of the eight contending comedies offered for public inspection (of which "Betas," a Silicon Valley sitcom, has also "gone to series"), it was clearly the heavyweight, with a script by "Doonesbury" cartoonist Garry Trudeau, cameos from Bill Murray (cursing) and Stephen Colbert (wrestling), and John Goodman in a starring role as one of four Republican senators sharing a cramped townhouse. Big and floppy and perennially fatigued, Goodman is in excellent form here as a Southern senator whose only agenda is to stay a senator. "Everybody in the state knows my record," he says. "Two undefeated seasons, 11 conference titles, two national championships."

Click here to download TV listings for the week of Dec. 11 - 17 in PDF format TV listings for the week of Dec. 11 - 17 in PDF format are also available at latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv Weekly TV Listings and more...

Holiday movies, specials and very special holiday episodes of your favorite series fill the TV screens between now and Christmas Day. Here are many of the highlights. “Glee” 8 p.m., Tuesday, Fox. Extraordinary Merry Christmas: The glee club...

Literary Death Match, a competition specially built to make attending a reading fun -- or at least slightly inebriated -- is going global, doing 100 readings around the world. Or 100-ish. 100, give or take. Founder Todd Zuniga, editor of...